Conductivity Measurements of Nonideal C Plasmas

We report measurements of the conductivity of nonideal C-plasmas. They are produced by evaporating a carbon-wire placed in a capillary within some hundred nanoseconds. Homogeneity of the plasma is obtained by the use of a ʹpre-heating-systemʹ which heats the wire before the main discharge. This way the initial resistivity of the wire is decreased, the discharge time is shortened. The reproducibility of the plasma is enhanced, the growth of instabilities is reduced. The conductivity is measured during 1 ms of the discharge. The particle density is of the order of 10 cm while the electron temperature is varying between 8000 K and 25000 K, the electron density is about 10 cm . The temperature is measured spectroscopically by fitting a Planck curve to the spectrally resolved emission profile. The results are compared with theories from Spitzer, Ziman and the SESAME-data.